James Charles apologizes for his racist remarks

James Charles claims he is really sorry about racist comments. (Photo: Twitter/jamescharles)

Back in 2016, CoverGirl’s first male beauty ambassador, James Charles, received lots of backlash for his racist tweets, like, “I can’t believe we’re going to Africa today omg what if we get Ebola?” and using language such as “Mexican Instagram slave” and “stupid Indian man.” After general silence on the matter, he recently attempted to address the controversy head-on via a short apology video shared on Twitter.

Charles begins the video by saying that he’s noticed a lot of his old tweets being dug up once again, and he realizes that he’s never made a direct apology to the people that his tweets actually affected. He goes on to share that his past tweets were “disgusting” and “degrading.” The 18-year-old also expresses how his tweets didn’t come from a place of hate, but they did come from “being a really ignorant 13-year-old that shouldn’t have had a Twitter account.”

Midway through the video, Charles makes it known that there is no excuse for his actions. “I am really f***ing sorry for my actions,” he says. “I know that a ‘sorry’ isn’t going to fix anything or take it back, but I’m saying I’m sorry because I genuinely realize how sh***y the things I said were, and I’m not just apologizing because I got called out.”

Since posting on Nov. 3, his tweet has received over 27,000 likes and more than 3,600 shares, with lots of people leaving their opinions on his apology. Some people cheered his sentiments on with comments such as, “Well done on handling this so well and so maturely. Always had so much respect for you and this only makes me respect you more.”

I'm a black girl, and I just wanna say thank you for your honesty. Love u sister <3

Others were not quite buying it and joined the conversation noting, “Just because he apologized doesn’t mean he didn’t mean it, ppl apologize for getting caught all of the time. You can’t mistakenly be racist.” Another simply stated, “Once a racist always a racist but ok sis you do you.”

Just because he apologized doesn’t mean he didn’t mean it, ppl apologize for getting caught all of the time. You can’t mistakenly be racist pic.twitter.com/vYpIUyPAEX

Charles suspected that there would be people who wouldn’t accept his apology with open arms, but explains, “I realize that I’m a role model for many people and I want to use my platform to spread positivity and inspire people. I work in an industry with so many beautiful and diverse people. Unfortunately, in the beauty industry there is a lot of inequity, and I want to fight against, not for. I don’t expect anybody to magically accept my apology orforgive me. I totally respect it if you don’t. But if you do, and you’ve been hearing me out, I really appreciate it, and I hope you choose to learn and grow with me.”